Battlefield Korea

I am Death, the Destroyer of Men

President Gates had just taken his seat and clipped his seatbelt on when Marine One began to take off towards Andrews Air Force Base, where Air Force One was located; the chopper was clipping through the air at a faster pace than the President was used to, and he started to feel a bit of motion sickness as they whizzed through the air.

As Marine One settled down onto the tarmac near his presidential aircraft, one of his Secret Service agents received a call. “Sir, one of the ICBMs is heading towards Washington DC,” the agent informed him.

It was terrifying to think that a nuclear missile was headed towards Washington and there was virtually nothing he could do to stop it other than hope the military was able to save the city. “Is this my fault?” Gates wondered. “Did I somehow cause all of this to happen?”

There wasn’t any more time to think. The President was rushed from the helicopter by a host of agents, who practically carried him up the stairs to the aircraft. Once Gates was aboard Air Force One, the door immediately closed. The President looked over and saw his wife, Melissa, and his twelve-year old son Connor, safely strapped into their seats. He sat down next to them.

“Pat, I’m so worried,” said his wife nervously. It had been a while since the President had heard anyone address him by his first name, and only his wife used that nickname for Patrick; usually, when she called him Pat, she was on the verge of tears.

Gates grabbed his wife’s hand. Unsure what to say, he simply replied, “Me too.”

Connor interjected, “Dad, what is going on? Why did the Secret Service come grab me out of my class at school and throw me in a car to rush me here?”

“I can’t really tell you all the details right now. It’s serious. All we can do right now is pray,” the President explained.

A horrible feeling hit him in the pit of his stomach, and it wasn’t from his crazy helicopter ride. “Here I am, being evacuated from D.C. with my wife and son while a nuclear missile is headed towards the city,” he lamented to himself. “Lord, I really hope the missile defense system will work… my senior advisors and generals have all insisted that the system would work, but those are the same generals and advisors that told me that Russia would never go to war with NATO over Ukraine.”

The roar of the engines was louder than usual as the pilots frantically pushed the heavy plane to get airborne and start to put as much distance between them and the incoming nuclear warheads as humanly possible. Within a couple of minutes, the aircraft leveled out, though it continued a slow climb. The President looked out one of the windows and saw a pair of F-22 Raptors escorting them away from the city.

“Has it really come down to this? Nuclear war… the end of civilization or America?” he wondered.

With the plane settling into its flight plan, the President’s National Security Advisor, Tom McMillan, walked up to him. “Mr. President, we need you to come to the conference room. We have the Commander of NORAD on the video link, and we need you to issue some orders that require your authorization,” he said urgently.

The President was still trying to take in the surreal scene unfolding around them, but he quickly undid his seatbelt and followed his NSA to the briefing room. Several generals were already seated at the table. Not everyone he was used to seeing at a meeting like this was present; the Secretary of Defense was being flown to Site R, at Raven Rock, along with other defense officials. Members of the Cabinet and Congress were being flown to Mount Weather, per the COG plans.

There was also a new face in the room. The President’s new Chief of Staff, retired Army General Liam Greeson, had just joined the White House staff forty-eight hours ago. He was still getting up-to-speed after Gates replaced his predecessor. Despite being new to his position, he was still a retired four-star and knew how to take charge of a situation when it was needed.

The video conference call was already running, and despite traveling through the air, they could clearly see and hear the commander of NORAD, the senior watch officer at the Pentagon.

“He looks nervous,” thought the President.

General Greeson didn’t mince any words. As soon as Gates sat down, he asserted, “We need the update on the missile strikes please.”

“Mr. President, we have confirmation of two nuclear detonations in South Korea. One hit our airbase at Kunsan, the other hit the ROK airbase at Wonju. We estimate that close to 100,000 people were killed, and twice that number injured. We are also tracking ten DongFeng-5 ICBMs heading towards the US-”

One of the Air Force generals at the table interrupted, “-Admiral, did you say a DongFeng-5? That’s a Chinese ICBM. Did these missiles originate from China?” he asked, with obvious concern in his voice.

“Yes and no,” replied Admiral Robinson. “We have confirmation that it’s a DF-5. What we do not know is if it’s a B model or not. We have spoken with the Chinese, and they are insisting that they did not launch any missiles at the US, but have not denied giving the DongFeng-5 to the North Koreans,” he replied knowing that he had still not fully answered the question.

The President felt he needed to get a word in. “So, we have ten Chinese-made ICBMs heading towards the US, but the Chinese are telling us that they did not launch the missiles? Am I missing something?” Gates asked.

Liam followed the President’s question. “How in the world did the North Koreans obtain ten DongFeng-5 missiles if the Chinese did not give them over? Do we have a way of talking with them? We have to make some very important decisions in a few minutes and we need to know more information than we presently have.”

“We are working to get them on the hotline right now. We have spoken with the Russians, and they said they are not involved in this and are not raising the alert status of their own strategic rocket forces, as a sign of good faith. They are wanting to make sure we know they are not involved,” Robinson replied.

The President surveyed the faces around him, then looking at the Commander of NORAD, asked, “What sort of response do you think we should take? And when will our interceptors begin to take those missiles out?”

“Sir, the first missile interceptors have been launched from one of our Arleigh Burke destroyers in the Pacific. Vandenburg and Ft. Greely have also fired off their missile interceptors as well. They should start to intercept the missiles within the next five minutes,” replied Admiral Robinson. “As to a response, I believe we need to send a strong message. We need to retaliate with our own nuclear weapons. We have one B-2 loaded with twenty B61 guided nuclear bombs in the air now. These bombs are equipped with a variable yield dial, meaning they are designed to give us a yield option of 0.3 kilotons to 340 kilotons of explosive power, so we can adjust how big of a nuclear response we want. We also have an Ohio class ballistic missile submarine operating in the nearby area that can launch one of its Tridents.”

“We also have our missile silos, correct?” the President asked, a bit naïve as to how the nuclear triad worked.

“Yes, Mr. President. We still have our silos, but they will not be able to respond nearly as quickly as the assets we have in theater,” Robinson replied.

There was a brief pause as the President considered his options.

“Sir, the first set of missile interceptors will be reaching their targets shortly,” said the admiral. “… We could decide on the retaliatory targets and weapon platform after the immediate threat is neutralized.”

Where the President had been momentarily unsure of how to respond a moment before, his facial features suddenly changed, and his eyes began to burn with determination and anger. “Admiral, before the war started, I gave operational authority to General Bennet and the Commander, Pacific Forces to use nuclear weapons if the North Koreans detonated a nuclear bomb on the Korean Peninsula. Inform the two commanders they are to initiate a retaliatory strike against the North Koreans. I want them to hit the North Koreans with eight nuclear bombs. One is to hit Pyongyang; I will leave it up to them to determine what other seven targets they want to hit. Make sure they look to hit targets that will help to bring a quick close to the war, but I will leave it to them to determine which exact targets will be best,” he said as everyone around the table immediately went into action.

While the military members were placing a myriad of calls to get the ball rolling on the President’s order, the missile tracks heading towards the US continued to move steadily closer to their targets. As the group collectively watched the enemy missiles arching towards the US, their worst fear was confirmed; these DongFeng-5B missiles were definitely the recently upgraded missiles with a MIRV capability. Seven missile warheads suddenly turned into 42 independent warheads.

Admiral Robinson turned around, screaming to the others in the command center, “Launch more interceptors!”

The targeting computer began recalculating the new trajectories now that the missiles had split. Within seconds, the graphics on-screen showed the new targets. The Admiral read off the names of the cities. “San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Ft. Hood, Washington DC, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Oakland, El Paso, and Fairbanks, Alaska-all of these appear to have a single warhead directed at them.”

The Admiral turned back to the group. “Mr. President, it’s likely that most of these warheads are decoys. There is no way that the North Koreans had 45 nuclear warheads in their possession in addition to the short-range missiles they just launched at South Korea.”

“Then again, the North Koreans were not supposed to have DongFeng-5B missiles either,” Gates said under his breath.

The first wave of missile interceptors fired by the Navy began to reach their targets. Of the 20 SM-6 missiles fired by the destroyer USS Gonzalez, 15 of them hit their targets. A few minutes later, the next round of interceptors began to arrive from Ft. Greely and Vandenburg. They managed to hit 27 of the remaining thirty missiles.

Of the three warheads left flying towards the States, one warhead was headed for the port of Oakland, another towards El Paso, and the third towards New York. A last-ditch barrage of missiles was fired from Vandenburg; those last interceptors would be cutting it close since the incoming warheads were now traveling at speeds approaching Mach 25 as they reentered the atmosphere and began their terminal approach. This was like hitting a bullet with a bullet.

One of the interceptors raced towards the warhead that was targeting New York City; fortune was on the side of the Americans in this case because that interceptor met its mark and collided in a spectacular display of precision guided technology. A second interceptor moved quickly to catch the warhead that was careening towards Oakland; however, Lady Luck did not smile twice. Just as the interceptor looked like it was going to impact, it sailed right past the warhead.

Less than a minute later, a miniature sun was born as that one megaton nuclear warhead detonated at approximately 5,000 feet above the Port of Oakland. In that second, it vaporized everything within the harbor as well as the entire city. The immediate fireball expanded outwards in a 0.6-mile diameter, consuming everything in its path. Buildings, ships, homes, and people just ceased to exist as the temperatures began to exceed 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The thermal radiation radius swelled quickly to 7.57 miles from the epicenter, further expanding the destruction caused by the blast. Anyone outside during the blast would suffer third degree burns across any exposed skin. The 5-psi overpressure from the air blast was enough to destroy most structures located within 4.37 miles of the epicenter.

As the initial blast wave and flames swelled out from the epicenter, the secondary blast effect of 1.5-psi continued to as far as 10.2 miles, which was still strong enough to blow out the windows of nearly every home, office, and car in the entire city of San Francisco, causing tens of thousands of injuries from flying glass and debris. The tidal wave of water thrown out from the epicenter of the bomb created a nearly 50-foot swell that quickly hit downtown San Francisco and the surrounding coastal areas of the Bay Area. The force of the water’s surge was then quickly followed by an enormous pull as the sea tried to replace the inordinate amount of sea water that had just been vaporized. Despite the recent earthquake retrofitting, the extraordinary rip tide caused by the bomb was enough to damage one of the main piers on the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. The northern side of the bridge leaned over towards the ocean until the force of gravity caused that portion of the structure to collapse into the sea below.

In a swift deadly blow, 225,000 Americans were vaporized, while another 585,000 more-received a near-fatal doses of radiation and severe third-degree burns. Because the nuclear missile exploded at 1430 hours, many people were at work at the time of the attack, increasing the number of casualties. As the mushroom cloud began to build, the firestorm that would consume the neighboring cities and forest preserves near the edge of the blast zone began to rage out of control. Many thousands more were blinded by witnessing the searing light of the bomb, even from across the Bay.

While this horrific scene was unfolding, another warhead was still streaking through the sky, careening towards the city of El Paso, Texas, the home of the 1^st Armored Division at Ft. Bliss. A glimmer of hope still existed as two remaining interceptors raced for the incoming missile, which was now traveling at Mach 25. Unfortunately, the first interceptor just missed the warhead, sailing right past it. El Paso’s fate now rested in one final chance. In an extraordinary triumph, the second interceptor scored a direct hit, slamming into the warhead and destroying it before a second US city was blotted from existence.

The President breathed a huge sigh of relief as the remaining warhead was destroyed. Without allowing himself to spend any time dwelling on the emotions of the human tragedy on the West Coast, he turned to his advisors and started issuing orders. “First, we need to get whatever government aid we can to California. Those people are going to need immediate assistance. I want FEMA to deploy immediately.”

He then turned to face the image of his Secretary of Defense, who had just joined the conference call at the secured bunker. “Jim, what are we supposed to do now? Do we strike at China for providing the North Koreans with the DongFeng?” the President asked.

Secretary of Defense Jim Castle heard the President’s question, but he needed a minute to think through what they should do. His gut told him to nuke the two countries into the abyss, but he knew they had to be cautious right now. They had just expended nearly 80 % of their land-based ballistic missile interceptors. They could not adequately protect against another strike like this one.

“Mr. President,” he began, “the North Koreans just launched twenty-three nuclear tipped missiles at South Korea and our forces there. Two of them got through our defenses and probably killed and injured over 300,000 people. We need to counter that attack with a severe nuclear response of our own. We cannot allow another nation to use nukes against us or our allies, and it not go unpunished.”

“Furthermore, the B-2 that is currently carrying the B61 guided nuclear bombs should hit the North Koreans with the maximum yield these bombs can inflict. Now, the second strike is a completely different matter. It is now apparent that China provided the North Koreans with ten Chinese made ICBMs. They may not have launched the missiles, but they are just as complicit in the annihilation of Oakland and the near-destruction of nine other American cities. That cannot go unanswered. The challenge is-how do we respond to that? Do we nuke one of their cities in response? Do we carry out a first strike against them and attempt to wipe out their nuclear missile capability?”

Castle sighed loudly, taking it all in, and then he continued, “We also have to keep in mind that we just expended a large percentage of our ballistic missile interceptors. If the Chinese respond by launching a counterstrike against us, we are most likely not going to be able to stop it. We could lose dozens of additional cities,” he cautioned.

The group discussed what to do, with several factions arguing for a first strike against China, another faction argued for a limited strike, hitting one of China’s cities in exchange for the destruction of Oakland. After taking a few minutes in private to think the scenarios over, the President made his decision.